


The Amulet of Sisters

by sofreakinmanyfandoms



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, F/M, Getting Together, Hydra are trash, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Slow Build, Tags Are Hard, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro, because spoilers for what's to come, hand-wavy science
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-10-30 23:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20781662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sofreakinmanyfandoms/pseuds/sofreakinmanyfandoms
Summary: Peter's first real Avengers mission wasn't the kind of mission he was hoping for - and it all went to hell. At least he was able to rescue the girl, right?Except Natasha thinks the guardian is secretly Hydra, Tony has stolen her for Science!, and Thor has become her Best Friend. (Of course Peter's not jealous. Don't be ridiculous.) To top if off, Hydra want their weapon back, and will do whatever it takes to get her - including squashing an annoying little spider.An expanded version of the November 11th one-shot from my NaNo2k18 project. Will have an as-yet undetermined number of chapters.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is happening. I'm not actually finished with it yet, since I have no idea how long it will be, and I don't have an update schedule figured out. *shrugs and raises shot glass* Here's hoping I don't take months between each chapter.
> 
> (There will come a day when I no longer feel the need to post the first part of an unfinished work at ass-o'clock in the morning when I haven't been able to sleep, but today is not that day.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter goes on a mission and people die.
> 
> (But it wasn't his fault.)

“Does it have to be me?”

“Yeah, Steve,” Tony groused from where he was not-so-subtly pouting, “does it have to be the kid? I could scale down one of my suits, send it in –”

“It has to be Peter, Tony,” Steve said with a rueful look at the young man. “We don’t have time for you to build and test anything; Strange was very adamant about the growing urgency of this mission. Hydra has the artifact and they have its guardian. Intel says they’re building another one of the machines they used on Bucky; if they wipe the guardian, reprogram them, they’ll have a massively dangerous weapon we won’t know how to fight. We can’t let that happen.” He pressed a button on the remote and blueprints for the facility popped up on the briefing room screen. “Natasha and Peter are the only two small enough to slip in without alerting anyone, and we need that element of surprise. They’ve moved the guardian before we can get to them every time we’ve tried retrieve them with a show of force. It has to be a stealth mission this time. We’re running out of options.”

“I promise, Tony,” Nat leaned forward and rested her hand on the billionaire’s, “I’ll take care of him. He’ll come back safe.”

Tony looked over at Peter, who was sitting on the window ledge in his new stealth suit, swinging his legs, hands fiddling with the mask in his hands. The boy looked up and made eye contact, his smile a bit shaky but genuine.

“I’ve been training really hard. It’s not a solo mission. I’ll be fine.”

“If anything,” Tony turned his attention back to Steve, “and I mean _anything_, goes wrong, we blast in there and get them out.”

Steve nodded. “Deal.”

\----------

“I’m not sure why you’re the one who’s scared right now,” Natasha whispered to him as they clung near the top of the outside wall of the fortress. “You’re sticking to the wall all by yourself. I have to use some of Tony’s new tech.”

Peter bit his lip, a motion she couldn’t see through his mask. “I’m about to crawl through a vent that leads into a top secret Hydra base to recover an unknown magical artifact from someone only known as ‘the guardian.’ It’s my first actual mission as an Avenger. Besides, Tony’s tech always works; you’re probably safer than I am right now.”

“And you’re ready or I’d be doing this solo,” Nat assured him, ripping the vent cover off and dropping it over the cliff the fortress was perched on. “Steve wouldn’t have assigned you if he didn’t think you were ready, and Tony _absolutely_ wouldn’t have given in if he didn’t know you could do it, no matter what anyone else said. Now, run the plan by me again.”

“Okay, I can do this.” Peter adjusted his mask and crawled in after her. “When we get in, I go left, taking the ceiling so as not to be seen, and find the room where Hydra is keeping the artifact. You go right and let me know when you’ve got the security room handled. Then I do whatever I need to, to get the artifact from the guardian and we rendezvous back at our entry point.”

“You got it, kid.” Nat slipped off the vent cover inside the building and dropped in. “Go. We’re on the clock.”

Peter worked his way along the concrete ceiling, pausing and holding his breath whenever the odd guard would walk below, just in case they could hear him. There were a lot fewer guards than he was expecting; this deep in their fortress they apparently weren’t expecting trouble without warning.

When he reached a room full of cells with two posted guards, he was pretty sure he’d found the right place. It was only a few seconds later that Nat gave him the go-ahead. Using rapid-fire mode, he webbed over both guards’ mouths and attached them to the wall.

“Sorry, guys,” he whispered, digging through their pockets to find the cell’s keys. “Hate to leave you stuck in a situation like this, but I’ve got a job to do. Aha!” The last bit was a tiny bit louder than it probably should have been, but no one came running in, so Peter fumbled with the keys and got the door to the cell open.

It would be completely safe to say that he was not expecting the sight that greeted him.

It was a stereotypical medieval dungeon-type cell, with a bucket to crap in and straw on the floor and a pathetic looking mattress that had been half-eaten by moths and didn’t even have a blanket, let alone a pillow. There were unused chains hanging from the walls and a barred open window and in the middle of the world’s saddest mattress sat a girl no older than he was.

You were in terrible shape, gaunt from starvation, bloodied and bruised, your hair a mess. You looked up at him with wide eyes that quickly changed from fear to surprise to… relief?

“You’re Spider-Man,” you said, the awe in your voice throwing him off a bit.

“Yeah,” Peter brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck. “That’s me.” This was not going how he had been expecting it to go.

You bit your bottom lip before continuing hesitantly, “I hear them talking sometimes… are you really with the Avengers now?”

“Uh, yeah?”

The relief in your eyes spread to your whole body. You practically collapsed back into the mattress before ripping an amulet from around your neck and shoving it in his direction.

“Here. Take it and go.”

“What?” This was definitely not how he was expecting this mission to go.

There was urgency in your voice when you repeated, “Take it and get out, before they find out you’re here.”

“I kinda thought I’d have to, you know, fight you for it.” Man, he was so confused it was embarrassing. “You’re the guardian, right? You’re supposed to protect it, not give it away.”

“If giving it away is the only way to protect it, then that’s what I have to do,” you insisted, still holding out the amulet. “You’re one of the good guys. You’ll keep it safe. If I keep it, they’ll just make me use it to hurt people, and I can’t let that happen. Just keep it away from Hydra and don’t let any women try to put it around their neck.”

“Right.” Change of plans, then. “Widow, we’re taking the guardian with us.”

“Not part of the plan, Spider-Man,” Nat hissed back through the comms.

“She’s my age, at the oldest.”

“…Shit. Bring her to the rendezvous point. We’ll figure out the rest on our way out.”

“Roger that.” Peter looked back to the now very confused you. “You can keep it. You’re coming with us.”

“Do you mean it?”

Dang it, the hope in your voice was gonna kill him. “Yeah, I mean it. Let’s go.”

You once again thrust the amulet out to him. “Take it first, and promise me that you’ll choose it over me to keep it safe.”

He really didn’t have time to argue if you were gonna get back to the rendezvous point in time, so he quickly loosened his suit, tucked the amulet under it and around his neck, and shrunk his suit back against him.

“There, all safe and secure. Can we go now?”

“Um…” You blushed, the healthy pink a stark contrast against your washed-out skin, and pointed to the chains around your ankles. “I’m sort of stuck here. Plus it’s been so long since I’ve left this room that I don’t know if I have the strength to walk very far.”

“Right. Okay, okay, we can work around that.” Peter used his strength to break your shackles, then knelt in front of you, facing the door. “Wrap your arms around my shoulders and your legs around my waist.” Once he had you pulled onto his back, he webbed your arms and legs around him so he’d have use of all his limbs and you couldn’t fall off. “Sorry, this is going to be a bit of a ride, but try to stay quiet and I promise I won’t let you fall. By the way, what’s your name?”

“Y/N,” you whispered shyly in his ear.

“Nice to meet you, Y/N. I’m Spider-Man. Let’s get you out of here.”

\----------

Yeah. That hadn’t gone as planned.

Peter slowly came to, hands tied together above his head and feet hanging just above the floor. Nat was to his left, definitely still out of it, and you were on your knees with your back to them, a Hydra goon beating you like his life depended on leaving you half-dead.

(Maybe it did. This was Hydra, after all.)

“Where is the amulet?” A cold disembodied voice calmly asked from somewhere in the shadows.

“Safe,” you spit out, along with blood and possibly a few teeth. Peter wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“Has it bonded to anyone yet?”

“How the hell would I know? It’s obviously not in my line of sight right now. Seems we’ve got a Schrodinger’s amulet situation on our hands.”

_Seriously_, Peter wondered, _how is she still alive with sass like that? It’s beautiful and she should really just stop talking_.

“You are the guardian.” The man attached to the voice stepped from the shadows and took his place behind the goon who had been working you over. “When the amulet bonds, you will know, and you will tell us. Or do I need to remind you what happened when you kept it from bonding to you in the first place?”

“Bring on your worst, Zimmerman. I was literally born for this shit.”

Before anyone could start beating you again, Natasha was free. She knocked out the man who’d been beating you and threw a knife she pulled from his boot, cutting Peter free.

_Of course Natasha was awake this whole time. Dumb of me to make assumptions._

The two of them stationed themselves on either side of you, waiting for more agents to swarm the room, but the man from the shadows – Zimmerman, you’d called him – merely laughed.

“No one will interrupt us. All I want is the amulet. Once I have it, I don’t care if you three leave.”

You tugged lightly on the back of Peter’s suit. “Spider-Man,” you whispered, “I need the amulet back.”

“You are _not_ giving it to him to get us out of here,” he whispered back frantically. “You can’t do that. You told me yourself you have to protect it.”

_Ow_. You slapped him upside the back of his head.

“Children, please, pay attention,” the Black Widow said dryly.

“I’m not giving it to him, you idiot. I’m getting us out of here.”

Peter sighed and loosened his suit. It _was_ your amulet, and you’d been pretty determined so far to keep it out of Hydra’s hands…

As soon as it was back in your hands, the amulet started to glow a rather frightening purple.

“Adelphie,” you whispered, “I accept my fate. Sisters, join with me.”

When the amulet slipped around your neck, it didn’t just sit there – in appearance, it melted into your skin, leaving a tattoo in the shape of it that was still very much glowing. And you, you were changing, growing stronger, and the glow seemed to come from your whole self.

“It’s about time you let it bond with you,” Zimmerman said lazily. “Now you’re actually useful.”

“There’s just one little problem with that, Zimmerman.” Your voice was, well, not _your_ voice but rather a multitude of voices, and that seemed to make him pause. “Now that we are bonded, Y/N has the strength and skill of all the Sisters… and we all want you dead.”

\----------

It had been a bloodbath. Apparently the “you” the Sisters wanted dead was all of Hydra. As soon as every operative on the base was dead, you’d reverted back to yourself and collapsed, desperately malnourished and beaten to a pulp, overtaxed muscles shaking, but with the amulet still a tattoo around your neck.

“I think I would be remiss,” Widow started slowly, her trademark unflappable calm dangerously close to cracking, “if I didn’t ask _what the hell just happened?_”

You grinned ruefully at her from Spider-Man’s lap. (“You can’t just lie on the floor, there’s blood everywhere, here, let me hold you.”) “I take it you didn’t know exactly what artifact you were coming for?”

“Apparently not. An explanation would be very nice right about now.”

“It’s Adelphie,” you explained, brushing a hand over your new tattoo. “Also known as the Amulet of Sisters. Every generation has a guardian, always female, who is charged with protecting it – right now that’s me, but you already know that. Each guardian can automatically become the wearer as well. If the guardian chooses _not_ to, the amulet will bond with another woman and the guardian must protect her until one of them dies. Guardian dies, new guardian is chosen. Wearer dies, guardian again has the choice of becoming the wearer.”

The Black Widow cocked an eyebrow at you and interrupted, “As fascinating as this history lesson is, can we get to what just happened?” You nodded.

“I had originally chosen not to be the wearer of the amulet, but Hydra caught me before I could find one. What you saw was me choosing to bond to it. It will be a part of me until I die now. Whenever I need to use it, I’ll have access to both its magic and the combined strength of every woman who has worn it before. The stronger I get on my own, the more strength I’ll add to the amulet when I pass on.”

“Can we maybe not talk about more death after all the death that just happened?” Spider-Man asked nervously. “Mr. St – Iron Man is going to be worried. We should get out of here.”

“Everyone knows Tony Stark is Iron Man,” you whispered as you held back a laugh. “He told everyone himself. You don’t have to protect his identity.”

“Right,” Widow said, throwing him an unreadable look. “Let’s go then. Congratulations, Y/N, you’re about to meet the Avengers. Maybe even join the team, who knows; we’ve got a thing for adopting strays. Unless you have a family you need to get back to?”

You shook your head and bit your lip. “No. There’s no one.”

“All right then.” She pulled you up and helped you back onto the younger Avenger’s back. “Welcome to the Avengers.”

You nestled your head against his neck as he carried you towards the compound’s motor pool and whispered for his ears only:

“Thank you, Spider-Man.”

\----------

Natasha settled herself into the driver’s seat and made sure Peter had gotten you settled securely in the back before she put the modified Humvee in gear and headed for the exit. Before the three of you could reach the big bay door, a blast knocked it open and the rest of the team poured in, freezing when they saw her in the driver’s seat of the open-topped vehicle.

“JARVIS?” Tony’s voice came through the HUD. After a moment where his AI apparently answered the unspoken question, the armor opened up and the genius stepped out.

“So,” he said, hands sliding into his pockets and looking around the empty motor pool bay, “anyone wanna explain why JARVIS’s scans picked up over two hundred and forty bodies with you three being the only ones alive? This was supposed to be a stealth mission.”

“I’m a little fuzzy on that, actually,” Natasha said breezily. “Spider-Man?”

Peter rubbed the back of his head with the hand that wasn’t attached to the arm currently wrapped around your shoulder. “I don’t remember how it started either.”

“It was something Hydra had been working on.” At your quiet voice, everyone’s attention snapped to you. “Some sort of compound that knocks people out, makes their memories for half an hour before they were hit with it disappear. They designed it for infiltration without detection, but I guess it was what they had on hand. There was a big fight, Black Widow and Spider-Man got hit with it, and they took us to interrogation.”

“That explains where the stealth part went off the rails,” Tony said slowly. “How about how every HYDRA goon in the place ended up dead?”

“_That_,” Natasha said with a sharp smile, “I’m blaming on the artifact.”

“Speaking of,” Steve interrupted before Tony could continue his line of questioning, “where is it?”

“Here.” You pulled down the edge of your ratty sweater. “It’s bonded to me until I die, so sorry if you were hoping to hide it away somewhere. I’d really rather not spend the rest of my life in another cell,” the look you shot the Captain made Natasha proud, “so you can’t keep me in one. I won’t let you.”

“She could be really useful to the team,” Peter blurted, blushing when everyone’s attention turned to him. “I mean,” he added more quietly, “she could use some training but she’s got the heart for it.”

Everyone seemed to study him for a moment before Tony finally clapped his hands.

“Decisions can be made back at the compound. For now it seems we have a guest joining us who could use a good meal, a hot bath –”

“A trip to medical,” Steve cut in.

“– a trip to medical, and a good night’s sleep. Full debrief tomorrow during dinner so our guest can sleep as late as she wants. Avengers, roll out!”

“We’re not Transformers,” Peter grumbled under his breath, but he simply pulled you closer to his side as the non-flying members of the team piled into the Humvee so Natasha could drive them the short distance back to the quinjet. Lack of space on the jet left the two of you sitting on a medical bed, and by the time Tony touched down on the roof of the compound you’d fallen asleep on Peter’s shoulder.

\----------

“What do you think, Nat?” Steve asked as the two made their way from your bed in medical back to the Avengers’ main floor. “I trust your opinion. After everything you saw today, do you think she should join the team?”

The redhead took a moment to seriously consider the question before replying. “I don’t think she should join. Yet,” she amended at Steve’s serious look, “I don’t think she should join yet. I _do_ think we should train her. Right now she needs some serious time to recover from what Hydra put her through, both physically and mentally. She’s a tough kid, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was traumatic.”

Steve studied her. “There’s something you’re not saying.”

“Let’s just say,” Nat called over her shoulder as she exited the elevator, “that this amulet necessitates further study.”

The soldier sighed. As much as he loved Nat, he could do without her tendency to be so cryptic, but he also highly valued her input. If she thought the amulet warranted suspicion, Steve was going to keep you under close watch.


	2. Chapter 2

Two minutes after you awoke the next day, before you could even finish taking in your surroundings, a sound at the door caught your attention; and a boy about your age rushed into the room, dark curls falling into his eyes despite the hand trying to brush them back.

“Oh, you’re awake! I hope you haven’t been alone for too long? I wanted to come over this morning and wait for you to wake up, but my aunt made me to go school and I had to stop a mugging on my way over after and are you okay? You look overwhelmed. I’m talking too much, aren’t I? Oh gosh, I’m so sorry, I’ll shut up now –”

“Give the kid a break, Pete,” Mr. Stark (_and holy _**frick**_, you were now in the same room as _**Tony Freaking Stark**) said as he entered behind the boy. “Y/N, wasn’t it? In case your memory’s gone spotty, you’re in Avengers Tower on the medical floor. Pete and Natasha rescued you from Hydra yesterday and you apparently returned the favor afterward by killing every agent in the whole base. Doctor Cho says you’re severely dehydrated and malnourished, and she wants to keep you for observation for at least a week, so if you want another jailbreak just ask. We can feed and water you on one of the residential floors just as easily as they can here, and our food is _way _better.”

The boy (_Pete, apparently?_) blushed as your eyes locked on him when what Mr. Stark said about yesterday’s rescue suddenly registered.

“You're Spider-Man.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s me.” The young man rubbed the back of his head, blush deepening. “Peter Parker. Spider-Man.”

Mr. Stark laughed. “Own it, kid. You helped save the lady’s life yesterday.”

“‘M not sure I did, really. You didn’t see it.” The awe and admiration in his eyes surprised you, and it became your turn to blush. “Y/N was incredible! I mean, it was super violent and that was totally gross, but it was still pretty incredible.” Peter paused, eyes widening. “Oh, shit!”

“Hey!” The billionaire slapped him upside the head. “Steve will have my head if he catches you talking like that.”

“Ow. Sorry.” Peter rubbed the back of his for an entirely different reason. “I just realized, though,” he returned his attention to you, “when we came to get the amulet, you were wearing it, and you could have bonded to it at any time. Why didn’t you bond to it sooner?”

You reached a hand up and brushed the amulet’s cord where it lay tattooed across your collarbones. “It’s just kinda, well… permanent. It bonds for the life of the wearer. And, well, as terrible a choice as I am for the guardian, I’m an even worse choice for wearer. Figured I’d give it some sort of chance to find someone worthy of it, you know? But Hydra got me before I found anyone, and then we were kinda surrounded, and… well, Natasha would have been perfect, you know? But no way was I about to give it to someone who didn’t know what they would be getting into, and there wasn’t really any time to explain, and even with the two of you, there’s no way we could have gotten out of that place alive without help, so…” You finished with a shrug. There was really nothing else to say. Getting them out of there was worth it, even if you’d doomed the amulet to a lifetime attached to you instead of someone with any sort of… well… skills.

There was a bit of an awkward pause before Mr. Stark started filling the silence with babbling and dramatic hand gestures.

“I get the impression that you’ve got a lot of self-worth issues – and trust me, I’m practically an expert on those, I’ve got more than enough to fill the quota for the occupants of the entire tower – anyway, that’s something we should probably have you talk through with someone, but not me, because expert or not I have no idea how to actually get rid of them or they’d be gone. So anyway, let’s get you out of here, okay? Okay.”

Get you out of there they did. It was a lot more fun than your last jailbreak, since instead of killing Hydra agents you merely had to make it past the nurse at the front desk. Mr. Stark rigged something to smoke a few rooms further down the hall, and all the medical personnel rushed to figure out why the alarms were going crazy. Within half an hour, Peter was pushing your wheelchair out of the elevator and onto one of the lab floors for the Avengers levels.

“Brucie Bear, we brought you a visitor!”

Doctor Banner looked up from where he stood hunched over a microscope, pulled off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes as Tony (“No, seriously, kid, that Mr. Stark stuff is going to give me a complex, and I already have plenty of them. Just ask Pepper.”) strolled into the lab in front of you and Peter.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” you said as Peter pushed you up to the table at which he was working.

“It really shouldn’t be,” he replied with a self-deprecating grin. “Y/N, right? I’m glad Peter and Nat were able to get you out of there. What brings you to the bio lab?”

“Tests, Big Green!” Tony declared gleefully. “Many test. Mucho tests. All of the tests! JARVIS, stand by to do some scans.” He spun around and pointed at you with a screwdriver that had somehow ended up in his hand despite having been nowhere in sight until he was holding it. “We’re gonna see how that amulet is attached to your skin. Did it melt into it? Did it transform into magically-charged ink? Was its existence as a solid object an illusion to begin with?” Turning back to the other scientist, he let out a vaguely maniacal giggle. “This is gonna help so much with our project!”

“Project?” Peter asked, a little wide-eyed at the sheer force of energy Tony had become.

“Tony and I have been working on finding scientific ways of explaining and recreating magical phenomena,” Doctor Banner explained. “The end goal is to find non-magical ways to defend the team against magic users.”

“Specifically, ways to magic-proof our suits,” Tony added. “We started the project after that time Loki turned Cap into an incredibly tiny, incredibly soft bunny rabbit. Finally got fed up with him pulling stunts like that and disappearing for a few weeks while we were left trying to fix whoever he’d whammied.”

A frown creased Peter’s forehead. “So we rescued Y/N from medical just for you to bring her here and experiment on her? That’s not –”

“Theoretically,” you cut in, “if you figure out the scientific aspect of how the amulet bonded itself to me, could you undo it?”

“Theoretically, we most likely could,” Doctor Banner said before pausing. “Although there would be multiple factors affecting the feasibility of –”

“Do it,” you said, looking at Tony. “Scan away. Take blood samples. Heck, biopsy my skin over the dang thing if it’ll let you. I’m all yours.”

“But –” Peter started.

Tony cut him off with a hand to his shoulder, but when he spoke it was directed at the other scientist. “How much time after Hulk was created did you spend looking for a cure?”

Banner studied his face, then yours, before solemnly nodding. “Take a seat on the table here. JARVIS will start the scans.”

You were far too busy watching the scientists work around you to notice when Peter slipped out the door.

\----------

“Hey, Peter. Can I join you?”

Peter looked up from where he was sitting on the floor and staring at the blank TV screen and gave the soldier a smile. “Oh, hello, Mr. Rogers. Sure, yeah, sit anywhere you like.”

Steve settled on the floor next to the teen and offered him the bag of chips he was carrying. “I told you, you can call me Steve. I may have been born in 1918, but I do _not_ feel old enough to have “Mr.” tacked in front of my last name.”

“Steve,” Peter said with a smile, taking a handful from the bag. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” The blond cracked open a bottle from the six-pack of sodas he’d brought in with him and took a deep swallow before continuing. “What has you sitting here staring at a powerless TV like a brooding emo?”

Peter choked on the chip he was swallowing and doubled over with a coughing fit until Steve gave him his own bottle and the teen had taken a few swallows. “Clint been introducing you to subcultures from the 90s and 2000s again?”

“What, was emo the wrong one?”

“No, it was definitely a decent descriptor.” Peter paused for a moment before sighing. “It’s just… Y/N has made it perfectly clear that she’d separate from the amulet if she could.”

“And that bothers you why?”

“It’s just… when I got my powers, sure I didn’t use them right at first, but, well, they’re a part of me. I couldn’t imagine going back to how I was before. All the good I can do like this, just… gone? And she’s not just willing to give that up, but actively trying to.”

Steve thought for a moment before he replied. “I get the feeling the amulet has been in her life for a long time, and it hasn’t exactly brought good things with it. If it weren’t for the amulet choosing her as its guardian – however that works – she wouldn’t have been taken by Hydra and had who knows what done to her for it. Before you got your powers, before I got the serum… we both had normal lives. We both got the chance to be kids, to grow up, to decide what kind of people we wanted to be, and you getting your powers and me getting the serum only enhanced that. I don’t think Y/N has had that chance. Even with our lives the way they are, we still get moments of normality, but Y/N hasn’t had enough normal in her life to make moments of normality be enough. She’ll figure out eventually who she is, with or without the amulet bonded to her; but until then, she could probably use a friend, whether you agree with what she’s trying to do or not.”

“…Wow, Clint’s right. You really are good at motivational speeches.”

Laughing, Steve threw back his head and brought a hand up to clutch his chest. “Thanks, Pete. Hey, wanna do something a bit more interesting than stare at a blank screen? I could use some practice at Mario Kart.”

“Practice won’t make it possible to beat Tasha. _No one_ can beat Tasha.”

“I know; I was thinking more along the lines of beating Clint.”

Peter laughed. “You can’t even beat Clint? Okay, yeah, you definitely need some practice.” He turned on the TV and game console, pulling out two controllers. “Let’s see what you’ve got. Maybe I’ll be able to give you some tips.”

“It would be much appreciated.”

The two of them were still battling it out, Steve doing massively better after Peter gave him some pointers, when Natasha returned to the tower a few hours later. She smiled at the two of them engrossed in their game and headed toward the firing range. There was something she needed to show Clint.

\----------

“Tell me what you know about Titania Williams.”

Clint didn’t pause in his draw and fire any longer than it took to glance at the old newsprint photo Nat was holding up. “I know that Williams was only her stage name, but not what her real one was. She was the strong woman for Carson’s around the time Barney and I joined; stayed with them long after I left. Not much older than Barney, but could lift an impressive amount of weight – enough I always assumed she was enhanced in some way. Always kept as much of herself covered as she could, no matter how hot it was outside.” He finished emptying his quiver and set down his bow, turning to face his friend. “Why are you asking?”

“She’s Y/N’s mother and the previous guardian of the amulet.”

The archer let out a sharp exhale. “Well, that explains both her strength and why she always kept her neck covered. What did you find?”

“After her time at Carson’s? Absolutely nothing. I know she was present during the circus’s last job but evaded capture when most of the crew were brought in, and I know that shortly afterwards, about sixteen years ago, she got pregnant and gave birth to Y/N. As for what she did between then and now, and how the amulet ended up being passed down to Y/N, there is literally no physical or digital paper trail. Coulson looked into it. There isn’t even an inkling of who Y/N’s father could be, because Y/N never had a birth certificate filed. For all we know, Titania could have been captured by Hydra before or while pregnant, and Y/N may have grown up in the cell in which we found her.”

“Well… that sucks.”

Nat cocked an eyebrow at him. “That’s one way of phrasing it.”

“So what are you gonna do next?”

“You could try asking me directly.”

The two spies turned to find you leaning against the firing range door frame, Tony and Bruce standing awkwardly behind you.

“Are we interrupting something?” Tony asked, falling back on banter to end the uncomfortable silence. “Because we can totally come back later. We were just gonna take some energy readings to see the difference in output between Y/N shooting normally and shooting with the amulet activated.”

“Because I’m willing to share information with people who actually ask me about my past instead of sneaking around behind my back,” you added, making the scientists flinch. Natasha merely studied your blank expression.

“You may be young, but you’re not naïve enough to think no one would run a background check on you after we pulled you out of Hydra.”

“Naïveté and belief in people who are supposed to be the good guys are hardly the same.” With that, you turned and walked away, pausing momentarily to look back over your shoulder and add, “By the way, Mom was pregnant with me fifteen years ago, not sixteen.”

Silence fell when you were gone, and Tony was once again the one to break it.

“Go a little easier on her, guys. She’s just a kid.”

“A kid we got from Hydra,” Natasha said calmly, “with as yet unquantified powers. The only thing we know for sure about Y/N is that we found her in a cell, and the only things we know at all about the amulet are what she’s told us.”

“You think they planted her,” Bruce realize. “You think Hydra wanted us to get her out.”

Natasha shrugged. “It was a leak in Hydra intel that alerted us to the fact they even had a magical artifact. They’ve known we were coming every single time we attacked, and that includes yesterday because they had an ambush waiting for us on our way out. Maybe Hydra put her in that cell for us to find; she was barely guarded according to Peter. If she were really a valuable prisoner, they wouldn’t let her go so easily.”

Tony’s tone betrayed his anger. “And what about the fact that she killed every single agent in that base, huh? Not to mention how she's _severely_ malnourished. Even Hydra doesn’t put its assets at risk like that. Another week there and Y/N might have starved to death!”

“You’re not exactly an expert on what lengths Hydra will or won’t go to, Stark,” Clint interrupted.

“What are you trying to say, Robin Hood?”

“I’m saying that you have morals!” Despite sounding exasperated, the archer managed to keep his volume under control. “I’m saying that you’re a good man who can’t fathom the depths of depravity some people will go to if it means they’ll get their way in the end. You can’t understand Hydra because you’re better than they are. Nat and me, we weren’t always on the side of the angels, which means we’re more willing to believe the worst of people. Does it get the way sometimes? Yes, but it’s also practical. We fight evil, Stark, not moral ambiguity, so please let those of us who understand evil do our jobs so the rest of you won’t be caught off guard while doing yours.”

“I think,” Bruce said quietly, “that we all need to step away from each other. Tony,” he placed his hand on the genius’s arm, “we don’t have to like it, but they have a point. Our job is to help Y/N get better. Their job is to have our backs and make sure she’s not a threat. And no,” he added before Tony could interrupt him, “I don’t think Y/N is a Hydra plant. I do think, however, that this team works because we all have different perspectives, and if we want it to keep working we have to let everyone work to their strengths. Let Natasha and Clint take care of us the best way they know how. They’ll warm up to Y/N when they’re convinced she’s safe.”

Tony still wasn’t happy, but he let Bruce lead him back towards the labs. Natasha and Clint went back to discussing their next step. And high up in the range room rafters, a little spider who had been making his way to his hidden stash of gaming snacks to find something the Captain would like when he’d come across an argument unfroze and continued making his way across the ceiling.

Natasha and Clint could think what they wanted – Peter was the one who had been in that cell. He’d seen Y/N, looked into her eyes; no way was she a Hydra plant. She couldn’t be.

Right?


End file.
